<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Treasured Clown by Garchomp445</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25355467">Treasured Clown</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445'>Garchomp445</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sleepless Domain (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Children, Children TW, Clowns, Clowns tw, Fluff, Fluff TW, Gen, Spoilers in the Notes, and also vaguely implied i guess?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:53:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,034</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25355467</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Undine's manager gives her a low-pressure job to get back into gear. Media appearances are no joke.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Treasured Clown</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Suggested listening: One-winged Angel, on loop. That’s what I listened to while writing this, anyway.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Undine, you won’t believe this, but I just found a job I think you’ll like! It’ll be a good way to get back into appearing regularly in front of cameras and crowds.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Undine’s manager was on the phone, and she was doing a pretty good job of humouring him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The best part is that you won’t have to show your own face! They have a costume all set up for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry?” Undine furrowed her brow, “They aren’t hiring me as alchemical water?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, this is a favour from a friend of mine! Very low stress, very casual! This’ll be an easy way to get back into the swing of things.” He coughed, “But, I completely understand if you don’t want to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I… think you’re right. I’d like to do it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great! It’s next week, let me just send you the address…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>--</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And that was how, one week later, Undine found herself in a most curious outfit at the back of a library. She was dressed as the main character in a new children’s book, Friendly the Clown. Her pants were huge and poofy, her shoes were larger than them, somehow, and took a delicate touch to move around in without tripping. Good thing she didn’t need to move from her chair. She had a big red nose that squeaked when you touched it, and her face was covered in far too much paint for her to be recognizable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It would’ve been the perfect job had there not been far over a dozen children staring directly at her. Undine began to sweat bullets. She already had a good grasp on the first couple of pages, so she turned it around and began reading,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Friendly walked out of their house-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the kids snorted. Undine blinked. She had completely forgotten the introduction. She closed the book gently and stood up with her legs spread slightly,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello kids! I’m friendly the clown, and I’m here to read you my story!” Undine’s voice didn’t project across the bookstore. She sat back down sheepishly and opened the book again. Several kids were looking at their shoes. Which probably were more interesting than Undine right now. She resumed her tepid reading of the book.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every so often, she tried to spice it up a little by honking her nose at an appropriate time, or striking a pose. Pretty soon three whole children were paying attention! It was just the right amount of pressure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Undine tried to keep focused on the kids, but something caught her eye in the back of the bookshop. Purple hair, glasses, oh no. Vedika gave her a slight wave, and Undine could feel herself redden with embarrassment. At least her face was already partly red.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She read the last few lines triumphantly, and smiled wide for her audience of six. The other six kids were fairly quiet, one was reading in the corner, and they were all fairly orderly. There was more than enough time for a deep breath, and then she’d be able to leave. Stressful, but brief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the children raised their hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, do you have a question? I’ll answer what I can.” She held her hand out to the child</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want a balloon animal! The clown in the book made balloons!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Balloons?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want a puppy!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want a dog!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Undine stammered, “Uh, it seems like Friendly forgot their balloon cart…” She looked around for something she could use, anything at all. Vedika coughed from behind the kids. Undine pointed at her and she stated,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perhaps I could lend Friendly a hand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course! Thanks so much!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She walked around the kids, and produced a surgical glove. Vedika made it look easy to inflate, it just took a couple of breaths. She tied it off and handed it to a kid.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a very fat dog. You should take it on a walk to exercise it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” The kid looked a little unsure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vedika smiled, “Really! I guarantee that it will be far smaller tomorrow if you put in some effort.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The kids all started raising their hands, “I want a fat puppy!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vedika handed a few gloves to Undine and smiled proudly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>--</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The children had left to help their dogs, and Undine had brought Vedika aside to thank her thoroughly. She bowed her head and said,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really saved me back there, thanks so, so much!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s no problem at all. You looked really cute in that getup, by the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Undine smiled a little bitterly, “Yeah, but you weren’t supposed to be able to recognize me. That’s what my manager said, at least.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t really recognize you on sight, you just sounded so distinctive I stayed to listen. You did a great job reading, by the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, but I don’t think the kids felt the same way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm. They were paying attention the whole time, weren’t they?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No? Most of them were staring at their shoes or playing with toys.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But they weren’t being disruptive, or loud. They were listening in their own way, even if you didn’t realize it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about that kid who started reading another book?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The corners of Vedika’s mouth curled up, “Not </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> of them were listening.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Undine smiled back at her. There was one other thing that had crossed her mind, though,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I was really surprised by your balloon knowledge! Can you do any of the… twisty tricks?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no, my special balloon powers are limited exclusively to surgical gloves.” Vedika raised her hands, “Sometimes it gets a little boring in the clinic, you know? I’m glad that we don’t get magical girls in every night.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They shared a glance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Undine, since we’re both here already, do you want to hang out? I have a couple books I think you’d like.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That sounds lovely!” Just as they moved towards the exit, Undine took a deep breath and touched Vedika’s shoulder, “Vedika, I’m sorry, but I have to ask you to do one more thing.” Undine tried to meet her gaze, but couldn’t manage it, “Please don’t tell anyone at school about this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vedika extended her hand, and they held each other gently, “It’ll be our secret.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>“Besides, there’s no one I can tell. The person I told all your secrets to just died.”</p><p>also yes i know tagging something "Tag" and then "Tag TW" does nothing but it also doesn't *hurt* anything, right?</p><p>Thanks for reading! feel free to leave kudos and comments!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>